Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill has compared Anton Frondell to Jonathan Toews twice in two days.
That’s a premature comparison, probably influenced by Toews visiting Tuesday. But it’s high praise nonetheless. Blashill clearly isn’t worried about keeping expectations low around his Swedish rookie.
Frondell’s NHL introduction has indeed been impressive. He’s the first Hawks rookie to tally five points in his first five games since Artemi Panarin in 2015 and only the third rookie league-wide to do that since 2022.
And his performance Tuesday was probably his best yet.
While playing center for just the second time, his line with Tyler Bertuzzi and Ilya Mikheyev was primarily deployed against the Jets’ top line of Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Alex Iafallo. The Hawks dominated that matchup, outshooting the Jets 8-3 and outscoring them 3-1.
The shift that led up to Frondell’s first-period goal demonstrated particularly well all the things he can do offensively.
He initially exited the defensive zone, entered the offensive zone and made a smooth move toward the net all by himself (going through three Jets), although he wasn’t able to get a shot off.
Seconds later, he found a loose puck behind the net and passed to Mikheyev for a shot on goal. Then he retrieved the puck again near the half-wall and passed low-to-high to Louis Crevier for another shot attempt.
Then he curled back toward the slot, kept his head up, buried a centering pass from Mikheyev and celebrated with arms raised as a crowd of 18,726 erupted.
“Back on the road trip, when we played in Madison Square Garden and different arenas, I thought, ‘Oh [wow], this is pretty good,’” Frondell said. “But they said, ‘Wait til you get back at home.’ I know what they mean by that now. It’s a pretty good crowd here.”
The offensive possession that led to Bertuzzi’s third-period equalizer also began with Frondell winning a battle down low — something he has already done so many times in five games.
Jets defenseman Neal Pionk got between Frondell and the puck, but Frondell craftily whacked it between Pionk’s legs and then spun off him to gain uncontested control.
Frondell has, however, also committed a fair number of defensive mistakes. Blashill has praised his defensive attentiveness, but it takes time to grasp a new system and new position.
When Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey cut toward the net early in the second period, Frondell peeled off, expecting either Crevier or Alex Vlasic to be covering the near post. They weren’t, and Morrissey scored. Crevier had made a mistake, but Frondell should’ve noticed and adjusted accordingly.
“He came back to the bench and said, ‘Should I have stayed with [Morrissey]?’” Blashill said. “I said, ‘Yes.’ So that’s a good thing that he understands those situations and will learn from them. To me, that’s the No. 1 thing.”
Kyle Connor’s overtime winner largely fell on Frondell, too, for not monitoring and sticking with the Jets winger closely enough in three-on-three man coverage.
Still, Blashill seems altogether thrilled with the early results from his Frondell-at-center experiment. Frondell sticking there long-term would give the Hawks a fantastic forward backbone with Connor Bedard, Frank Nazar and him as a “one-two-three” punch of centers.
There are pros and cons to any arrangement. That one would put more pressure on prospects Nick Lardis and Roman Kantserov to pan out as top-six wingers and on general manager Kyle Davidson to acquire a couple more wingers via draft or trade.
Frondell isn’t thinking about any of that, though. He’s simply trying to adjust to the NHL, which he called “a whole new level” compared to the Swedish league.
“Everything goes so fast,” he said. “Everyone is a lot better. I still have a lot to learn. [I’ll] just keep going and get better.”
The Hawks’ overtime woes continued in a 4-3 defeat Tuesday, but they conceded only 24 shots on goal in the game — a dramatic improvement from their recent road trip.
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